The automatics of Heron

The ''philosopher's stone'' of Heron

An amazing invention of Heron of Alexandria that "changed" one liquid into another, for example, water into wine. It consisted of an airtight vase of water which, at the top, had a tubular opening where water entered and reached the bottom and of an airtight vase of wine which, in the middle, had a tap in a siphon shape. The two vases were connected by an intermediate small tube that entered the bottom and reached close to their top. When a certain amount of water was poured into the first vase, the air inside went through the intermediate tube to the second vase pushing out the equal amount of wine. (The tube arrangement did not allow the mixing of liquids).